Nothing has changed. Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics began, there was a lot of speculation about human rights organizations protesting the Chinese government’s role in the genocide in Darfur. Activist coined the term “genocide games” and athletes formed Team Darfur to pressure China to intervene in stopping the Sudanese government from killing internally displaced persons in Darfur. Two weeks went by, Michael Phelps won eight gold medals, and the world (I mean, Americans) seemed more outraged by the injustice over the age of the Chinese women’s gymnastics team, than they were about the 300,000 that have been killed and the two million displaced during the five years of fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Some human rights activist thought the Olympic games would be a time to showcase China’s human rights abuses but in reality, it came and went. We’re back to square one.